Don Armstrong

Time now for this hour's car review. Had the 2025 Ford Explorer. It's available in the Active, the ST line, the Platinum and the ST. I had the ST four-wheel drive. This is a midsize SUV. It is no longer body on frame. When I was doing the research I thought what? When did that happen? It's now a unibody three rows of seating with six seats inside. It was all new in 2020. It does get a facelift this year all new for 2025.

Don Armstrong

Exterior features sharp looking restyled grille and lighting up front. St is the sportiest of the four trim levels Black plastic wheel. Well, opening moldings in that Forward-raked C-pillar gives the SUV a sportier appearance than most others in this class. New rear lighting and quad exhaust enhances the overall look. What I liked about it? The modern yet conservative styling. This is a Ford and you can tell it's a Ford. I think you'll like it. What could use improvement? In my mind, nothing. Interior highlights All. New interior has enhanced the usability in my mind. Dash has two screens now one for instruments, one for the infotainment system with the new Google-based system running it. Comfortable, supportive seating with awesome new coverings, dual phone holders above the center console on the dash. That was unique and I really did like that. One of them was the charger and the other one is the holder.

Don Armstrong

Mama's got. Just I want to hold my own phone, Okay. Well, if you want to put it down, there's a place for you. What I liked about it the optional 13.2-inch infotainment screen. Get it, I'll tell you that it's huge. It's Tesla-like inside Wow Secret compartment in the in-floor cargo area so you can hide stuff. And I know, Jeff, you've got lots of stuff you need to hide.

Michael Marrs

I've got a lot of skilletons I need to hide.

Don Armstrong

Three-liter EcoBoost V6. The base is 300 horsepower, ecoboost 4. This one has 400 horsepower, 415 pound-feet of torque, 10-speed automatic transmission. It'll tow up to 5,600 pounds. 18 miles per gallon, city, 24 on the highway, for a combined of 20. I got 21.1 miles per gallon over 382.3 miles. Plenty of power for towing and people riding. Handling well. I liked its ruggedness. I like the rugged feel of this. It isn't a wallowy suv. Base trim price 57.1. I had a pre-production model, so the approximate test price is about sixty thousand dollars. Base model price 39 755 is what you can get into one for. Competitors include the acura rdx 44 7, the mazda cx 90 for 37 845 and the kia telluride for 38 000. That's because they don't have one this year. It's priced that I could find Interesting and that is my review of the 2025 Ford Explorer.

Don Armstrong

Thank you very much, you're welcome. We'll be right back Time. Now for this hour's car review. Mr Mars has the Land Rover Defender. How was it, mike?

Michael Marrs

I have to tell you I was pleasantly surprised after a little while.

Don Armstrong

It's got a lot of.

Michael Marrs

English touches to it and I'll try and point them out as we kind of go through this. This is definitely catered to the English market, but they're sending them into the US. So it's a 2024 Land Rover Defender 110. Now, actual 17 models of this vehicle. There's five different trims it's an SSE, x-dynamic, sex and a V8 engine. Now we had the Defender 110.

Michael Marrs

And so this is actually a off-road luxury SUV, if you want to go that away with it.

Michael Marrs

And the difference between the difference on the 110, the Defender 90 is a two-door, the 110 is the four-door that we're driving and then the 130 is an extended four-door, an extended 110. You're going to find it comes with the LED lighting, which has got the automatic high beams on it, rain-sensing front and rear wipers on it, got heated power-folding side mirrors with approach lights on them, had the black roof rails with a matching black trim on this particular vehicle Panoramic roof. You want to get outside, you're going to get off road, you want to see everything and we're rolling on some optional 20 inch dark gray wheels. Now you get inside, you're going to find some grain leather seating, because this is a luxury off-road suv, particularly in the x dynamic, specific interior with details that are specific to that vehicle. We had the heated and vented front seats. We had the side view uh cameras that were set off into the mirrors, so it makes it a lot easier whenever you're getting ready to change lanes.

Michael Marrs

You can see a whole lot better that's cool the rear seat is a 40, 20, 40 that will fold down and, uh, it's got some dual purpose controls in it that were kind of awkward to figure out.

Michael Marrs

For example, there's not a cruise control, there is a speed limiter and you know, speed limiter button one time and it automatically limits to what the GPS says the speed limit is. If it's 60 you do, 60 is the max, it'll let you go. It's 75, do center or you can hit it again and do a manual override and you can limit the speed to whatever you want. But it's not. They don't call it a cruise control and there's several different functions within the car that are like that, that are kind of specific, and you can figure them out pretty easy. We also had a Meridian 400-watt premium audio system that was really really nice on the inside of that vehicle.

Land Rover Defender Review

Don Armstrong

A lot of Jimmy Buffett going on.

Michael Marrs

Now there's different engines for each different trim level. We had the 3.0-liter inline, six-line, six cylinder with 395 horsepower, 408 pound-feet of torque. It's backed by an eight-speed automatic transmission. Now properly equipped, this vehicle will tow 8200 pounds. It does weigh 5 000 pounds on its own, so it's it's a pretty good size heavy vehicle so it can carry that load. Now the epa says you should be looking for 17 miles to the gallon in the city out on the highway, 20 combined for the 18. Now, for the week I had it, I drove it 257.7 miles and I got 16.5 across that spectrum of highway and in-town driving. Okay, now I will say it does ride and drive like a body on frame suv. It's that feeling that it's a little more solid than a unibody.

Don Armstrong

It's stiffer.

Michael Marrs

We also had the air suspension so we could adjust the height on it, and it's got an off-road-specific speed limiter that if you're in the off-road you get into the four-wheel drive, you can actually set it to basically what I would call a crawl. I think on most American vehicles they call it a crawl, like a low gear. Like a low gear, yeah, yeah, yeah. So a base model of a Defender that is the 90. And it starts at $57,875. Now the base trim price for the Defender X-Dynamic SE that we were driving is $72,000.

Michael Marrs

We had a few other things on. It had an MSRP of $81,923. Now if you're looking for something to compare it to, you might look at the LX600 from Lexus. It's a little pricier $92,565. A Ford Bronco, depending on which one you want to get into, will run you $50,000 to $60,000 to start, and a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is kind of a luxury vehicle as well, off-road, for $60,000. Wow. So overall, if you're looking for something a little different that's got a reputation for being heavy-duty in the off-road world, the Land Rover Defender might be the ticket you're looking for. Could be hey, today's In World Time Club. We'll be right back, take care.